Early growth and expansion of the United States was greatly affected by the availability of goods. Goods could be found at stores and trading posts located in towns or along trails. Goods could be obtained by buying or trading valuables, such as gold, eggs, or livestock for a bit of flour and some cloth, a fur, tools, or any other available necessity.
As communication avenues have broadened due to advancements in technology, modern methods of selling goods can now include virtual stores setting up shop via an online store accessible through an internet connection. Many sellers, or vendors, are exploring effective ways to sell goods via the internet.
Such advances can permit, for example, internet selling where pre-selected buyers can ask for a quote from vendors by generating an request for quote and receiving vendor quotes in response to the request for quote.
One such system is discussed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 7,043,457 B1 to Hansen, which discusses a method and system for managing and evaluating commodities purchasing over a network of distributed computing devices. In one embodiment, the method allows a plurality of buyers to generate one request for quote and, response to the request for quote, receive a quote from plurality of vendors. The system provides a price normalization routine that allows buyers to evaluate and compare a normalized price for commodity products having different evaluation parameters. In an arrangement comprising a plurality of computers connected to a network said plurality of computers including at least one server, at least one buyer client computer and a plurality of seller client computers, the method for providing commodities exchange services first provides a web-based browsable display describing at least one commodities exchange service. The system then receives at least one request for quote from the buyer. The system then receives at least one quote from different sellers, wherein each quote may have a different price and quantity listed. The system then compares to one or more selected metrics and normalizes the prices received from the different quotes, thus, allowing the buyer to readily compare the prices of a number of commodity items having inherently different values. In one embodiment, the system also provides a method for multi-value cross compilation of sales transactions, iterative quote information, and metric data for purposes of evaluation and strategy analysis.
Still other systems can provide a system where registered sellers can receive an offer for an item from a registered buyer according to specified rules.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,207 to Walker discusses a method and apparatus for effectuating bilateral buyer-driven commerce. Prospective buyers of goods and services communicate a binding purchase offer globally to potential registered sellers, each seller having an assigned ID for maintaining anominity for all transactions, for sellers conveniently to search for relevant buyer purchase offers, and for sellers potentially to bind a buyer to a contract based on the buyer's anonymous purchase offer. In a preferred embodiment, the apparatus includes a controller which receives binding purchase offers from prospective registered buyers. The controller makes purchase offers available globally to potential registered sellers. Potential registered sellers then have the option to accept a purchase offer and thus bind the corresponding registered buyer to a contract.
However, limitations of trustworthiness, closed markets, and goods limitations impair the known systems from achieving a highly effective buyer driven commerce system.